You know you're a hard core true Christian if you refuse to celebrate Christmas because it's rooted in Pagan traditions. "It is only sinners like Pharaoh and Herod who make great rejoicings over the day"

It may not be popular but at least (in this case) they are following the owners manual. After all, if you do not follow the rules, what's the point in claiming to be Christian?

This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. 3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter."

reported:I have an idea for a holiday comedy special... hard-core Christians form an unlikely alliance with hard-core atheists and start a real "War on Christmas™". Many wacky hijinks and much hilarity ensues.

But even to some Christians, Christmas has always seemed like a version of a pagan feast - and therefore unworthy of observance.

Growing up my parents did not celebrate Christmas for this very reason. In fact, they would pull us from school if the class was having any sort of holiday party. Even today, my parents refuse to go into any place of business displaying a Christmas tree.

Well, since they stole the idea anyway, and they seem to just change the rules based on whim or whatever, isn't the whole thing ridiculous? Religion as a whole that is. Don't they just make up whatever serves their political ideology?

lordjupiter:ArcadianRefugee: lordjupiter: ArcadianRefugee: How many Christian beliefs aren't originally pagan?

Um, monotheism?

That's silly. The bible doesn't say He is the only god, just that he should be #1 on in people's lives.

"I am the Lord your God, You shall have no other gods before me."

Notice it isn't

"I am the Lord your God; there are no other gods."

Not sure if serious.

Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'"

Genesis 3:22 states, "And the LORD God said, 'The man has now become like one of us...'"

That's silly. The bible doesn't say He is the only god, just that he should be #1 on in people's lives.

"I am the Lord your God, You shall have no other gods before me."

Notice it isn't

"I am the Lord your God; there are no other gods."

Not sure if serious.

Serious. Baal was the main competition.

I know that. But everyone knows Abrahamic Christianity is monotheistic, regardless of what non-believers were doing at the time. So monotheism couldn't have been stolen from paganism, which is the worship of many gods, by definition. Their monotheism was partly a reaction to the paganism of the time.

When the original Christians tried to convert the Germanic pagans, they found it mighty rough going. In that religion, anyone who dies in battle is carried off to Valhalla by beautiful winged women called "Valkyries" while anyone who died in bed---"The Straw Death" as they called it---was doomed to wander forever in the frozen wasteland of Hel. That is why the phrase: "--colder than hell--" prevails today.

They found it easier to modify the dogma, rather than try to wage war against people who liked to go down the hard way, and take a lot of others with them. Hence the similarity between modern Christianity and old Germanic paganism.

That's silly. The bible doesn't say He is the only god, just that he should be #1 on in people's lives.

"I am the Lord your God, You shall have no other gods before me."

Notice it isn't

"I am the Lord your God; there are no other gods."

Not sure if serious.

Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'"

Genesis 3:22 states, "And the LORD God said, 'The man has now become like one of us...'"

Angels, dude.

Not that I believe any of that stuff literally, but if we're talking about theories...definitely aliens.

This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. 3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter."

lern2read, the passage was about idolatry, not Christmas trees, which didn't appear until the 1500s. Before then, pagans would Festivus themselves around a tree and each other, not cut down and display a tree.

Funny he should mention Herod, because master debater and Christian apologist William Lane Craig said that the Sandy Hook massacre is just another reminder of the reason for the season. Much like the BBC did with Wayne LaPierre, I present his views with a disclaimer that this is not a parody, and that these are the views of William Lane Craig, who calls his particular brand of apologetics "Reasonable Faith".

That's silly. The bible doesn't say He is the only god, just that he should be #1 on in people's lives.

"I am the Lord your God, You shall have no other gods before me."

Notice it isn't

"I am the Lord your God; there are no other gods."

Not sure if serious.

Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'"

Genesis 3:22 states, "And the LORD God said, 'The man has now become like one of us...'"

Angels, dude.

Not that I believe any of that stuff literally, but if we're talking about theories...definitely aliens.

I have a hypothesis with absolutely no evidence to back it up: Angels were Judaism's way of incorporating the multiple gods into the one big guy.